1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin separator usable for automatic vending machine, coin exchanger, service machine or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to improve a coin slection accuracy, there has been heretofore provided a so-called electronic type coin separator which is so constructed that coin separation is achieved with the use of electronic separating means but without any use of mechanical separating means such as cradle, deflector or the like.
The conventional coin separator is equipped with a coin discriminator comprising an oscillation coil and a receiving coil. This coin discriminator is composed of a sensor portion comprising the aforesaid oscillation coil and receiving coil and a controller. Specifically, the controller is constructed on the basis of a technical knowledge that an attenuated voltage is different from coin to coin when the coin passes across the sensor portion, and it is operated in such a manner that an attenuated voltage with an allowable range added thereto which is previously measured and stored for each of coins is compared with a received voltage fed from the sensor portion and a discrimination signal relative to whether coins are true or false as well as a discrimination signal relative to the kind of coins are outputted with reference to results of the comparison. The conventional coin separator actuates a plurality of solenoids for selecting coin passages in accordance with the signals outputted with reference to the results of discrimination of the controller, and then carries out separation relative to whether coins are true or false and separation relative to the kind of coins so that false coins are delivered to a predetermined coin passage and true coins are separately introduced into predetermined coin passages which are provided in accordance with the kind of true coins.
When, for instance, four kinds of coins C1, C2, C3 and C4 are to be separated one from other with the use of the conventional coin separator as mentioned above, at least four solenoids to be actuated in response to discrimination signals transmitted from a coin discriminator are required inclusive solenoids for separating true coins from false coins and solenoids for separating coins in accordance with the kind of coins. Consequently, the number of components constituting the coin separator increases and the coin separator itself becomes large and expensive. Further, the conventional coin separator has other problems, namely, the assembling process becomes complicated and moreover a circuit for the coin discriminator becomes complicated in structure due to a number of solenoids to be actuated with the result that special knowledges are required for maintenance and specification both of which can not be performed easily and simply.